Question:I am new to world paper
moneycollecting. Where
do I learn more about thisexciting hobby and
who can teach me how andwhat to start
collecting especially if I am on atight budget to buy
so many truly magical notes?Answer:
Please read all
answers on this pageand then visit the
following page of this web site:Introduction
to World Banknote Collecting

Question:
What is a Banknote
(Bank Note)?Answer: The technical
definition is a promissorynote on bank of issue
promising to pay its facevalue to bearer on demand. A
more commondefinition would be paper (or
polymer plastic)
money issued with theintent to use as legal
tender in a particularcountry or region.

Question: What types of
banknotes should I collect?Answer:
Many
collectors choose to collect one note from as many countries as
possible, while others may choose to specialize
in a particular country or region.
You could even collect a particular theme or
topic, such as banknotes with ships,
trains, birds fishes, boats or even nudes
depicted. More advanced collectors start
collecting error notes, misprints, notes with
funny serial numbers such as: 111111
or 000001.

Question: I have a banknote
(or a paper money collection) that I can
not identify, because it is
printed in a language that I don't
understand
and the letters on the note(s) seem to be
different from latin or some kind of
strange
characters or hyeroglyphs. How can I find
out
it's(their) value and possibly to sell
them?Answer: You have to
describe the banknote(s) in DETAIL, every
detail is important and you
have to scan it's/their image in JPEG (.jpg)
format in order to show the banknote(s)
to us
(or send a xerox copy or an original by
mail to
us). To do that the following page will
help you:Banknote Appraisals (Evaluation). Also:
Offers.

Question: I have a Five Dollar/Mark/Franc
(etc.) banknote dated 1900 (example),
what's the value of it? Are youinterested
in buying it?Answer: That is the kind of
inquiry that I will not respond. It is clearly
too little info in
this kind of inquiry. Please read the above
previous answer and go to: Appraisals
and/or Offers.

Question:I'm at this
page now: http://www.banknotes.com/fr.htm (example) and
I'm interested in buying some of these banknotes,
but I do not see any price listed
on there. Are these items for sale?Answer: You are actually at our Photo Gallery (Currency
Museum).
Any items
displayed on our Gallery/Museum pages are not for
sale. To view what we have for
sale please go to our Text Pricelist or to our Store (shopping cart). Simple
rule: if
there is no price displayed - the item is not for
sale or it has been sold.

Question: What is my banknote worth?Answer: Please visit: Banknote Appraisals. I am unable to give
answers via email
or via telephone. You'll have to pay to get your
bank note appraised. That way I'll
make sure I don't get flooded with too many
requests for free appraisals, since I have
a lot of other work to do to provide you all with
more and more beautiful images and
exhausting information on many thousands of
fantastic banknotes from all over the
world.
Question: I don't need an appraisal,
but I'd like to know whether the banknote(s) Iown
has/have any value (no proper form submitted).Answer: The fact that you are
asking this question means that the stuff you
have inyour
possession is valuable to you; otherwise you
would have thrown it into a trashcan.
You can either keep it or give it away. Never
throw anything into the trash unlessyou
are going to recycle it. Any
banknotes you have, always will have some
value,be it $0.05, $1, $10, $100 or more.
So, if you are not willing to spend time and
effortandpresent your
holding properly, then it is unnecessary to
contact me.
Question: What books could
you suggest for a beginning and/or advanced
collector of world banknotes?Answer: Please click on the
following link to view and buy most popular books
for a
beginning and/or advanced collector: Bookstore.

Question: How do I grade
paper money?Answer: Grading information is
located at the following page: Grading.

Question:What
are Replacement Notes?Answer: They are notes
issued to replace damagednotes. The usually have a
star, asterisk or specialprefix in the serial number
to indicate that they are
replacements. Due to their scarcity, they
cancommand a significant
premium over the regularissued note.

Question:What's a Specimen
Note?Answer: It is a sample note,
usually with a special serial number (usually all-zero
serial number such as 000000) and an overprint or
perforation with the word
"Specimen" in the language of the
country of origin. They are usually distributed
to
banks, treasuries and law enforcement agencies to
familiarize them with newly
issued currency. They are not intended to be used
as actual currency.Question: What are known
reproductions of US colonial, confederate,
obsolete and
other paper currency?Answer: Paper money reproductions
are also known as BOGUS, FAKE,
COUNTERFEIT banknotes. Here are two internet
pages listing some of most well
known repros (USA only). These links will lead
you away from my site so don't
forget to bookmark this page or to remember
"BANKNOTES.COM":
Known Reproductions: http://www.ronscurrency.com/rcbogus.htm

Question: What is Seigniorage?Answer:Seigniorage is the difference
between the face value of the currencynote
or coin and the cost of printing or minting.

Question: I have discovered
a lot of paper money
on my grandmother's attic. They seem
valuable to
me, but I know nothing about them. Where
can I
get them appraised?Answer: To appraise your
paper money please go
to the following page: Banknote Appraisals.

Question: Is there an international
banknote collector's club or society
that I could join?Answer: Yes, please visit the
following page: IBNS.

Question:
What is intaglio printing?Answer: Printing plates
are covered with inkand then the surface of each
plate is wipedclean which allows the ink
to remain in thedesign and letter grooves of
the plates. Eachsheet is then forced, under
extremely heavypressure (estimated at 20
tons), into thefinely recessed lines of the
printing plate topick up the ink. The
printing impression isthree dimensional in effect
and requires thecombined handwork of highly
skilled artists,steel engravers, and plate
printers. Thesurface feels slightly
raised. This processis called intaglio printing.

Question: How can I start my own
collection of world banknotes from a scratch
and at a low cost without spending many days and
weeks collecting one banknote
at a time?Answer: Please consider purchasing
a "beginner set" on the following page:
Beginning Collector
Sets.Question: What are the guidelines
for sending you a banknote offer?Answer: Please click here to view detailed info on
how to offer bank notes to me.Question: What are the dates of the
end of redemption periods for majour European
currencies?Answer:End of
redemption periods *

* last day
of redemption at national central banks (DD-MM-YYYY)Question:
How do I clean a bank note?Answer: Cleaning, washing or
pressing paper money is generally harmful andreduces both
the grade and the value of a note. At the very
least, a washed orpressed note
may lose its original sheen and its surface may
become lifeless anddull. The
defects a note had, such as folds and creases,
may not necessarily becompletely
eliminated and their telltale marks can be
detected under a good light.Carelessly
washed notes may have white streaks where the
folds or creases were(or still are).
Processing of a note which started out as
Extremely Fine will reduce itat least one
full grade. Glue, tape, or pencil marks may
sometimes be successfullyremoved. While
such removal will have a cleaned surface, it will
improve the overallappearance of
the note without concealing any of its defects.
Under suchcircum-stances, the
grade of the note may also be improved. One
should not iron a banknote
to remove creases and folds. The heat can cause
the colour of the note tochange
or flow and thereby destroy patterns. Folds and
creases are part of life ofa
bank note and should therefore be accepted as
such. Any kind of tape should notbe
used in repairing a banknote. Chemicals that are
used on the tape can damagethe
banknote and its grade will be severely reduced
or even make it worthless. Inkand
stains can sometimes be removed by using soap,
water or alcohol. The treatedbanknote
has to be be washed with clean water after any
treatment. Afterwards itshould
be dried, which can be done by pressing it
between paper sheets (in a book).Now
when it comes to professional bank note cleaning
and improving techniquesweare not a good advisor to you since we do not clean,
wash, press or improve anybanknotes
in any way other than straightening bent corners
and folds with a fingerand
naturally "pressing" the notes in
holders while they are stored in a stock box.

Although we do sell some
banknotesthat have been already
improved(washed,cleaned, pressed, glued,restored etc.) bysomeoneelse.Onlyexperts, called paperconservators,should repair paper money.

Question: We need certain banknote
scans at a high resolution (300 dpi) for ourupcoming publication. What's the
procedure?Answer: Please email us a list of codes (example:
AF-70) of the
banknotes from
our A-to-Z pricelist (not from
gallery!) including the time frame you need it
done by
and I will get back to you. Please note that we
charge you for our time and labour
spent scanning the images. We do not sell the
images, we charge for our time and
the intangible service you receive. Total cost of
scanning and providing the images
on a server depends on many factors.
Alternatively, in exchange to our time/labour
you are welcome to give us a credit by providing
a credit to "Audrius Tomonis -
www.banknotes.com" in your book, publication
or as a link on your website. Please
note that our digital images/scans are our
property, but the physical banknotes
depicted on Banknotes.com are not necessarily our
property (especially some of
the images in our Gallery that have
been sold or donated).

Question: Why most banknotes bear
signatures on them?Answer: In the past, many
countries required that all issued banknotes be
hand-signed
by at least one authorised person. This
requirement was in force even beforebanknotes
were invented. When an obligatory document was
created (as equivalentof
paper money), which specified certain financial
obligations between the parties,it
allowed the transfer of the financial obligatory
document (which was signed andsometimes
sealed) to a third party. Thus, the obligation
became legally binding.

Question: What is your
telephone or fax (facsimile) number?Answer: Please go to
"Contact Us" page
to find our phone and fax number. Please
note that our telephone and fax is on the
same line (number) and in order to send
us a fax (facsimile) you will have to
phone
(call) us first or simply send your fax
after
the autoresponder (voice mail) message
is finished. Please note that our
telephone
line is only for order-related
questions.
Please do not call to early or to late.
Best
time to phone us is between 10:00 AM
and 9:00 PM EST (New York).

Question: Can you appraise (evaluate;
tell me the value) of a single banknote or
coin or a collection of mine over the telephone
or fax?Answer: The answer is - definitely
not. Please go to "Banknote Appraisals" (we donot appraise
coins) page to get your item(s) appraised.

Question: Do you buy world banknotes?
Can I sell to you?Answer: Yes, I do buy all kinds of
world banknotes (paper and plastic currency).Please click here to view detailed info on
how to offer bank notes to us.

Question: I did not find an answer
to my question in the Q&A above and my
question is not order-related. What should I do?Answer: Please email us (no phonecalls, please)
and I will try to do my best to
answer your question(s). I reserve the right not
to respond to questions the answer
to which can easily be found by browsing my web
site. Also due to lack of time I
might not reply within a reasonable period of
time. Please also check our Help
section. The fastest way to get a reply to your
question is to include it in your
order's "Customer Notes" section.